I do apologize about the title as it sounds like I am running in politics but I find it easiest if one thinks in an economical mindset for my purposes here. Over my time playing I find that the game is less and less enjoyable to play the more time a server runs, this can be due to the fact that few continue on with the game from the start but those who do rise to be "supers" (the name is just for reference and isn't meant to be condescending). So say a player joins they build and build then they build a fleet, and get raided or crashed (it always happens soon enough) usually by a super. Therefor, almost all economic flow is pouring in to the super's control, much like a monopoly, and they make a larger and larger fleet that will soon be crashed by another super (usually). Now this leave those lessers in a "gyre" of sorts. It's just a cycle that is hard to break out of, and not that may people are that dedicated. So the above leaves super receiving most of the growth in the game... as the millions of resources being poured into the game by inactives and actives alike give it a exponential growth economic to the game. So the fix would be to shift the focus of growth not on those supers but rather those newer players.

Here begins my proposal, but I would like to mention it will not be easy add-in to the game it would be more focused on a new sever *Cough*. Adding a building that's function is to act as a market place and it would sell ships. Now there's a catch, anyone can produce ships but they may not use them.** They can be produced at 60% the real cost, and sold at a regular price. Now for the buyers this would be the same as making them but what if those ships produced would have a advantage of say... 75 or 50 percent of the original deuterium consumption. Simple, no?

Now in hopes that the supers will see that production is instant and deuterium consumption is, say, 75%... they buy giving those lowers profit to make more ships or to build faster. Please note that this is a crude thought of this building and idea and will need to be evolved but it would hopefully give the game more depth and keep the resources flowing to all so please don't cast it away.

** To the Devs. I know this would be a daunting task, seemingly endless coding and bugs but here's what I was thinking. Essentially the lowers would produce a totally different ship (as far as coding goes) but that has all of the base stats of the regular ship (a doppelganger) except for the deuterium consumption (or what ever else is desired). Ship number will be calculated by adding ship "215" (215 = A regular battlecruiser) + "218" (230 = A modified battlecruiser) then that is the value that players see under "Battlecruisers". When sending fleets out, the 230 (Or any Modified ship) get priority over the regulars and set first with the regulars filling what the Modified couldn't. As for the not being able to use ships you produced but when sold to someone else they can use them... well my amateur skills draw a blank but I am sure you could figure it out.

I like what your saying here, the resources go to the strong and the weak get hit so its a crappy cycle. Grow, make a fleet, raiding, hit others, then get bashed down, it *****. So anything to make new players more important than I think its a plus. A flow of resouces directly from the bottom to the top players is not positive unless your one of the few tops, a flow back and forth if that could be done would be awesome. how that would work I have no idea. but I like the thought of new players meaning more to the game than just another possible farm to a higher player

nope
and why not
1 because i like the hunt
2 because i like to crash
3 because this is a game of war want economics play monopoly

as i have stated before the problem is not the game but the large number of idiots that flock together and play this game

how the hell is it possible that for example i crashed an entire nob alliance in 1 day cause they did not fs???

how about less bragging about hitting noobs and more thought towards the future of ZE? I think it is a great idea to balance the flow of res. if the new players feel like they have a chance they will be more likely to stay. This, God Of Death, would give you more noobs to crash since you aren't crashing the big guys.

God_of_Death:
But seem GoD there is no hurt to those supers (in which I would consider you one), better yet you get a bonus. There is no downfall to you or those making the ships, in fact you are helping the game.

And you just proved my point right there, you crash a whole alliance... all of those resources into your control now no lower member will every see those again (most likely case unless they are like epic in their combat skills). So the cycle repeats. We are just pawns in your game, and right now we're in check...

Rishard & Thinman:
That's exactly my point, now I see that my idea might not be the exact fix but I believe that the principal is the key. As you see above with GoD is a perfect example, where those resources will almost never see the lowers again... just one big gyre.

yea you have a hard time trying to convince the top players they should do something that will move some of the res down the line. they just like to go bash noobs and brag about it like they are some sort of super elite. Like God_of_Death just did here. I personally wont hit anyone who is 1/5 my size or less on principle grounds even if they are profitable. where is the challenge that g-death is always saying he wants. guess when no challenge you just go bash some noobs into inactive status.
As for expanding on your idea, there needs to be a cut off point where you cant build those ships for the market anymore or the big guys would just build them for each other.

I thought of that too... I came to the only conclusion that it would have to be rank based, any other way might not determine the best buyers. If you left the top 100 to buy and the rest to build then there would be a demand for ships... but I can't seem to find a sure fire way to determine a "Super" between a lower besides talking to them/studying them (that sounded creepy... just ignore it)

here is a possible idea. we should have a res donation week. let moderators pick a couple of smaller players and assign those smaller players to bigger ones. then the bigger ones can send them 7 shipments of res that exceeds the normal limits. maybe once a quarter let this happen. It would be a way for the bigger players to help the little ones out and give them a boost. (and to help with forum reading) the mods would only pick players who use forums for this transaction.
The forum requirement is mostly because those who read the forums are better players than those who dont. Only because their is a lot of good advice in here to be had. And if you are going to give a res week, you want players that are not just going to loose it. Just brainstorming here.

A good idea in theory stempf, but I see it as a way for bigger players to groom themselves a juicy farm.

Stempf wrote:here is a possible idea. we should have a res donation week. let moderators pick a couple of smaller players and assign those smaller players to bigger ones. then the bigger ones can send them 7 shipments of res that exceeds the normal limits. maybe once a quarter let this happen. It would be a way for the bigger players to help the little ones out and give them a boost. (and to help with forum reading) the mods would only pick players who use forums for this transaction.
The forum requirement is mostly because those who read the forums are better players than those who dont. Only because their is a lot of good advice in here to be had. And if you are going to give a res week, you want players that are not just going to loose it. Just brainstorming here.

What do I get in return, specifically? The resources I send should be an investment in something and not just a free donation. The res is mine and a return is a desirable feature if not a necessity. If I send resources to a smaller player and he loses it, then it is a total waste of resources I could have used myself unless I am compensated adequately up front.

Make it opt in / out and randomly assign smaller players to bigger players who volunteer. This will help minimize pushing friends and / or growing farms.



Alpha:
It's not a bad concept and sounds promising. Some details worked out over time and the idea could really become something.